Overlords of the U.F.O.

Overlords of the U.F.O.
1976
Director: G. Brook Stanford
Writer: W. Gordon Allen
Stars: W. Gordon Allen, Trevor James Constable & Juan Fava
Unrated - Approx 94 Min
Scientific News/Tower Investments International Ltd.


PROOF!  The E.T.'s have found us and they're not all friendly!

This is an "animated" segment, believe it or not!

Run!  It's the Overlords!

If you come here on a regular basis you know how I feel about UFO's, aliens and the whole shebang.  They creep me the hell out, yet I'm obsessively fascinated by them.  It's been that way since I can remember.  I used to take out the same three or four books about UFO's from the Fitchburg Public Library when I was a kid.  I must have read those books a thousand times.  Then in Jr. High through High school (way back in the day glo soaked 90's)  schoolyard and lunchtime conversation was filled with talk of the latest UFO/Alien shows that popped on the FOX network at an alarming rate.  Of course the most famous of these specials was the Alien Autopsy (Fact of Fiction?) special from 1995.  You know the one.  It was hosted by Jonathan Frakes and it is considered to be one of the most controversial specials ever aired.  I won't lie....back in those days I was in full Mulder mode.  I wanted to believe everything.  Clearly the whole thing was a hoax...the creators even came forward and admitted it.  I digress.


UFO documentaries are nothing new.  The earliest known UFO Doc that I know of is a thirteen minute Telenews reel that was shown in theaters in 1952 entitled The Flying Saucer Mystery.  From there there have been many, MANY documentaries covering every aspect of the UFO phenomena.  Today I want to talk about Overlords of the UFO.  Quite possibly one of the weirdest, wonkiest and outright most ridiculous of all documentaries produced on the subject.

BAM!  Wood paneling!  This is SOOO 70's!

Huh.  It's an alien!

Hosted by W. Gordon Allen, Overlords explores the idea that UFO's are not from outer space but are in fact craft sent from another plane of existence by inter-dimensional beings.  As the doc asks about a quarter of a million times:  Who are the Overlords of the UFO?  Who the hell knows.  This thing is all over the place!


According to Mr. Allen, "The UFO" (as he puts it) is an inter-dimensional craft that is able to materialize into the fabric of our universe.  The pilots of these UFO's are said to be robotic servants to these Overlords though the reasoning for sending slave scouts is never really explained.  There is a metric shit ton of information flying at you at all times, yet it's all wonky talk that makes no sense.  However it's spoken with strict authority and given and pure fact, which is odd.  All the incredible claims made in this documentary are just put out there as fact....as if they've officially and without dispute answered the question "Are we alone?" with a resounding "NO!".

Stanton Friedman is one of the only sane people to appear in 90's minutes.

"I saws a flying saucer!"

BAM BAM!  More wood paneling goodness!

Somehow Uri Geller appears in the final third of the film.  We watch as he bends metal (Keys and such) with the power of his mind....using biometric energy or some such thing.  Apparently that's how the Overlords of the UFO power their crafts....biometric energy.  That could explain why electronic equipment fails when UFO's are around......but then why don't your keys bend?

Uri Geller?!??  WTF?  Here, bend my keys.....

Cattle mutilation is also touched upon and the theory is placed forth that cattle mutilations are not the result of extraterrestrials, but in fact because of giant invisible flying "critters" (as they are called) that come down from the atmosphere and feed on the cow's soft tissues, regurgitating their bones and leaving them behind for dismayed farmers to find.  Holy shit, I can't believe I just typed that last sentence.


Of course there are also many terrible photographs of UFO's peppered in.  Most are quite blatantly fake (I'm looking at YOU, Ummo UFO!) and others are just indecipherable....but there are plenty of them!  There's artists renditions of outer space and psychedelic colors swirling around as we listen to sounds from another planet.  It's all really trippy.

This "photograph" was hailed as the best photo evidence ever.  Good grief.

A shot of the "Ummo" UFO.  Apparently they like to put runes on their craft.

Another shot of the "Ummo" ship

This is......a........jellyfish?  Or a UFO.  I'm not sure which.

Oooh, shiny!

A classic "Bell" shaped UFO.  There is video of this one!  All wobbly on a string like.

There's also plenty of  nightmare fuel as artist depictions of UFO encounters and abductions.  These aren't your normal artist renditions of that you would expect to see....they're boldly colored and there is something unsettling about them.  It's hard to put my finger on what exactly what makes them so, but I would definitely NOT want these hanging on my wall.

I don't know exactly what is being depicted here and I don't want to.

That UFO is friggin EVIL looking!  Look at the blood red light!

Nope, I was wrong.  THIS ONE is evil looking!  It's got eyes for Christ's sake!

An artists rendition of the invisible air critters shitting out cattle skeletons.  Joy.

An alleged robotic humanoid UFO pilot.

This brings me to an interesting point about this doc.  It's incredibly ridiculous, it's completely devoid of any actual fact and yet there is something sinister and unsettling about it.  Maybe it's the sounds from Ummo, who knows.  I watched this at about three in the morning, which is the appropriate time to watch something like this.  At times it feels a bit like In Search of.... other times it feels like I should be on some serious mind altering drugs to understand what the hell they are talking about.

W. Gordon Allen looking all authoritative 'n' shit.

So wonky and cliched.  Love it.

The long and short of it is that you NEED to see this.  If you are at all interested in UFO's, the paranormal, or 70's bat shit craziness, then this is for you.  It's easily found in it's entirety on YouTube....or if you want the complete Overlords experience, then you need to pick up a copy on VHS for about $14.99 on Amazon.  Then take it to a room with shag carpeting and wood paneling, immerse yourself and drink the Kool-Aid, man!


GORE
What?  No, dude...this is a documentary on UFO's!

T&AYeah.....not so much.

MONSTERS
Well.  There's pictures of aliens.  And invisible air critters.  So that counts.  Right?


Final Thoughts

Like I said, you should watch this.  It's a trip and a half.  Just make sure that you're watching it on a 19" tube TV on a VCR while in a den with shag carpeting and wood paneling.  Perfect.

The Disappearance of Flight 412 - UFO Shadow Ops

The Disappearance of Flight 412
1974
D: Jud Taylor
W: George Simpson & Neal R. Burger

S: Glenn Ford, Bradford Dillman & David Soul
Not Rated - Approx 72 Min.
Cine Films/Cinemobile Productions



Taglines:
 - If One Tenth Of 1% Of UFO Sightings Are Real, Flight 412 Found It...



Alternate Titles:
Az eltűnt járat rejtélye - (Mystery of the Missing Flight) Hungary






"You want me to keep quiet?  Then give me an order.  I WANT AN ORDER!"
                                                                         - Capt. Roy Bishop

Aliens.  UFO's.  If you've read Midnight Cinephile for any length of time you know that I have a love/hate relationship with them.  Actually it's more of a fascination/terror kind of thing.  On one hand the thought that we could be alone in the universe is a deeply depressing thought.  What a waste of space....literally.  In an ever expanding universe that is, quite frankly, bigger than any of us realize, it's a deeply troubling thought that there is no one else out there.  From what we can see in our little drop of water in the ocean of space, it's a beautiful place full of wonder and beauty.  What good is all that wonder and beauty if there is no one there to appreciate it.

Everyone drinks coffee while they're watching radar!  

See those three blips in the upper left?  Thems UFO'S!

On the flip side of the coin is the utterly terrifying notion that we are NOT alone.  That there are other planets out there with life completely unlike our own.  That really boils down to the basics, doesn't it?  We fear the unknown.  We fear what we cannot and do not understand.  Are they friendly?  Are they hostile?  I guess we'll never know that until we get full disclosure on the subject.

That brings me to another aspect of the whole alien/UFO enigma:  Goverment Cover-Ups.  Area 51.  Roswell.  MiB,  The Battle of Los Angeles in 1942.  Eisenhower's 1954 Extraterrestrial Meeting.  There are so many more incidents that are now infamous, yet we still do not know the truth about them.  Is the government concealing and covering up the truth about aliens?  Why?  Is it to protect us or are there more sinister motivations at play?

"I can't believe what I'm hearing!"

This is a typical scene.  Lots of phone calls and people standing around.

I could go on all day long about aliens, UFO's, government conspiracies and the such, but you didn't come here for that.  You came here to hear about a little made for TV flick called The Disappearance of Flight 412.

The film starts us off with a photograph of a UFO.  The narrator informs us that people have been viewing and photographing UFO's for years.  Thousands of people all testifying to seeing these bizarre craft in our skies.  Some turn out to be hoaxes....but if even one out of all the thousands of reports turns out to be real.....that is still one very real UFO.

"So, the jet's just disappeared, eh?  I saw David Copperfield do that trick before..."

This is Trottman.  He's a dick.

The film takes an almost documentary style approach.  We are introduced to Colonel Pete Moore who is heading up the Whitney Radar Test Group.  They've been experiencing some technical difficulties lately and so he sends a crew of four men, led by Captain Roy Bishop out on a test flight mission.  Flight 412 detects three anomalous blips on their radar and two fighter jets are scrambled to intercept.  The jets vanish right before the crew's eyes. So technically, it's really not the vanishing of Flight 412....but that's neither here nor there.

After the jets vanish, Flight 412 is ordered to land by a top secret military controlled organization who are basically a shadow op that is trying to keep a lid on UFO activity.  The crew lands and they are split into twos and  detained in separate rooms.  Digger Control is housed in a dilapidated complex, which struck me as pretty strange.  Sure, it looks nondescript from the outside and you certainly wouldn't guess that there's a shadow op going on there....but this place is literally falling apart at the seems.  It looks like it's been abandoned for 30 years before they moved in.  Very odd.

Colonel Moore is being kept out of the loop on the status of his men and so along with Major Dunning, he seeks out the operation and goes to get his men back.  We learn that Digger Control is run by a Lt. Col. Trottman.  Apparently no one except the grunts wear any kind of uniforms on this base...they're all decked out in 70's-tastic plaid and sunglasses.  At night.  Inside a broken down building.  Bunch of weirdos.

Colonel Moore and Major Dunning to the rescue!

After sitting around Digger Control for 18 hours, it's time to head home.

Anywhoo, as the Colonel and Major are kept waiting, Trottman and his team continue their "debriefing" of the crew of Flight 412.  Essentially breaking them down little by little, making them question their own integrity and such.  You know....typical shadow op stuff.  Jerks.  At one point Captain Bishop tries to make a break for the aircraft to radio the Colonel but gets caught and sent back to his room.  Close but no cigar, buddy.

What's especially interesting about the film is the fact that other than the photograph of the UFO shown at the beginning of the film (which is just a random photo and not one of the craft that Flight 412 encountered) we never see and extraterrestrial aircraft.  All we see are three blips on the radar screen, but you know....that's enough.  They still manage to soak tension out of the whole sequence.  After the jet fighters vanish and Flight 412 lands, it becomes more of a shadow op thriller.

GORE
Not one single solitary drop of blood.

T&A
Negative, good buddy.

MONSTERS
Nuh-uh.  Unless you wanna count the radar blips, which represent UFO's which may or may not be piloted by beings from another planet.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is not, I repeat NOT and action flick.  While it's not explicitly based off of any particular real life incident, you can find similar happens all over the place if you do a little research into UFO's.  There have been many accounts of airplane pilots reporting strange objects in the sky.  Personally, I found the whole film to be fascinating.  If you're serious about UFO films then you may very well enjoy it as well.  This is more of a rainy afternoon movie than a late night romp.

VIDEO CLIP:
Flight 412 encounters something unexplained.